Defence procurement in
United States.

Every other market on this site asks a foreign supplier what it will put back into the country. The United States asks something different: how American the thing you are selling already is. There is no offset to negotiate — instead there is a registration chain that starts with an NCAGE code from your own country's codification bureau, a rulebook in two volumes, and a domestic content regime that the Berry Amendment tightens further for the Department of Defense. The barrier here is not the competition. It is qualifying to be in it. SIRAT analyst desk · reviewed 2026-09-05

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Buying departmentDepartment of Defense

PlatformSAM.gov

Foreign entity codeNCAGE

RulebookFAR · DFARS

Domestic contentBuy American Act · Berry Amendment

At a glance

Buying departmentDepartment of Defense

PlatformSAM.gov — registration for All Awards is required to be eligible for most federal contract actions, and is free

Foreign entity codeNCAGE, obtained from the National Codification Bureau in the supplier's home country before SAM registration begins

Entity identifierUnique Entity Identifier (UEI), which replaced DUNS

RulebookFederal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS)

Domestic contentBuy American Act — domestic-origin supplies and construction materials unless an exception or waiver applies

Berry Amendment10 USC 4862; stricter than the Buy American Act and specific to the Department of Defense

Foreign control disclosureDFARS 252.209-7002 requires disclosure of any foreign government interest amounting to control of the business

Getting to the starting line

A non-US supplier registers before it bids. The chain runs NCAGE first — obtained from the National Codification Bureau in the supplier's own country — then registration in SAM.gov for All Awards, which issues the Unique Entity Identifier that replaced DUNS. Registration is free and done directly on the site, but it carries dozens of representations and certifications against the FAR and DFARS, and those answers bind you.

The rulebook is two volumes

Federal purchasing runs on the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and defence adds the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement on top of it. DFARS Part 225 covers foreign acquisition specifically, including the treatment of purchases made for foreign military sales.

Domestic content, not offset

The Buy American Act requires the government to buy domestic-origin supplies and construction materials unless an exception or waiver applies. For the Department of Defense the Berry Amendment goes further, requiring that food, clothing, tents, certain textile fabrics and fibres, and hand or measuring tools be entirely grown, reprocessed, reused or produced in the United States. Where other markets negotiate what a supplier gives back, this one legislates where the goods came from.

Who owns you is part of the bid

DFARS 252.209-7002 requires a contractor pursuing Department of Defense work to disclose any foreign government interest that constitutes control over the business. For a state-linked or partly state-owned supplier this is not a formality at the end of the process; it shapes whether the pursuit is viable at all.

Compiled from the published material of the US Department of Defense, Acquisition.gov and SAM.gov, last reviewed 2026-09-05. A public reference note, not an assessment. Something wrong or out of date? Tell us.

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Defence procurement inUnited States.